Line #98 Series/KingdomAdventure


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kingdom_adventure.jpg]]
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4	''Kingdom Adventure'' was a puppet show (with a little animation mixed in) that was intended to be much like ''Lord of the Rings'' or ''Narnia'', teaching Christian values to kids in an allegorical, fantasy setting.
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6	The main characters are a boy named Pokum and a girl named Keena; they live in Lumia Forest, and they and their community are constantly threatened by an evil wizard named Zordock and by other characters under Zordock's influence. But they aren't without help; a God-analog [[TheGhost who never appears on screen]] called "the Emperor", and His Son, called "the Prince", are with them in their struggles every step of the way. The Emperor has a long-term plan to put Zordock out of commission--a plan that the kids and their friends and allies are a part of.
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8	Along the way, they have plenty of adventures and learn a lot of lessons about how to live with each other and deal with the world they live in.
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10	----
11	!!''Kingdom Adventure'' provides examples of:
12	* AgonyBeam: Zordock has this ability: he fires beams at minions who annoy him, and while the beams don't do any visible damage, they do seem to cause at least moderate pain.
13	* AnAesop: Being a Christian work aimed at kids, aesops are inevitable. There's even an episode that deals with [[FantasticDrug drugs]], of all things!
14	* AngelUnaware: It's revealed that Reagle has a humanoid form, much the same way Dagger does, when Napps shoots Reagle out of the air, and he reverts to his humanoid form while injured and on the ground. Pops and the kids take him into their home to recuperate, even as Lolly and Garbo complain about having to take care of him. They change their tune when he helps Garbo out of a jam, and they figure out that Reagle is one of [[{{God}} The Emperor's]] special soldiers. The episode where all of this happens is even ''called'' "Angel Unaware"!
15	* AnnoyingArrows: Zig-zagged:
16	** At one point, Dagger gets hit by a stray arrow from Napps. He pulls it out later, but is in pain from it. Possibly justified by virtue of the fact that he's a magical being capable of shapeshifting.
17	** In another episode, a different character was hit with an arrow, lost a great deal of blood from it ([[BloodlessCarnage off-screen, of course]]), and needed days of rest and food before he could so much as stand up and walk around.
18	* ArborealAbode: Pokum and Keena live together with their also-young housemates Garbo and Lolly in Pops' tree home. It's heavily implied that ''all'' homes in Lumia are trees, and even Lumia Castle looks like a giant hollowed-out tree.
19	* TheArchmage: The Prince has shades of this, being both royalty and weilding powerful magic, sometimes even carrying a gold staff.
20	* BackFromTheDead: The Prince comes back to life after being killed--it's even stated that He did in the opening title sequence! All part of [[{{UsefulNotes/Jesus}} who He represents]].
21	* BadHabits: Pokum at one point needs to sneak into Lumia Castle to retrieve a magic book. Fortunately for him, there are monks who work in the castle's library with typical InTheHood clothing, and who've taken a vow of silence, so all he needs to get inside with no one the wiser is a brown hooded robe and a little distraction.
22	* BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad: While reporting to Zordock, Dagger says that the protagonists are up to something good...and then says "And that's bad, right?" Zordock agrees.
23	* BavarianFireDrill: Minstrel Vibes manages to sneak Pokum out of the castle, in full view of Pitts' guard [[DumbMuscle Gorf]] no less, by immediately telling Gorf that Pitts called for him and needs him in the library right away. It works so perfectly that Gorf shows no signs of recognizing that Vibes isn't alone!
24	* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Played straight for the most part, in that the cuter the character, the fewer character flaws they tend to display: Pokum and Keena are the cutest of the kids, and their housemates Garbo and Lolly have buck teeth and less-appealing proportions, and they tend to be naughtier kids. Pitts, Dagger, and Gorf are uglier still, and are recurring villains. [[spoiler: All this straight-playing makes a subversion all the more noticable, when a wart-covered purple monster turns out to be not only friendly but an important ally and the former Magistrate.]]
25	* BigBad: Zordock is this series' {{Satan}}-analog, a SorcerousOverlord who also put Pitts in the position he's in as Magistrate. While Magistrate Pitts functions as the main antagonist in many episodes, Zordock is the main threat the protagonists need to deal with over the course of the series.
26	* BloodlessCarnage: despite the Prince being struck on the neck with a sword and Dagger being shot in the backside with an arrow, there's no blood. It was stated that someone who'd been hit with an arrow had lost a great deal of blood, though it wasn't shown on-screen.
27	* CannotTellALie: Both The Emperor and The Prince are stated to have this trait in the flashback episode detailing how the kids first met the Prince.
28	* CaptainCrash: Most of the time when he's in vulture-form, Dagger fails to land gracefully.
29	* CardCarryingVillain: Dagger routinely refers to Zordock as "Your Evilness", and Zordock doesn't mind that title: if he ''did'', Zordock would've used his AgonyBeam powers on Dagger for calling him that!
30	* CuteMute: Gigag is a childlike character who is on the heroes' side and always seems to be smiling, but he's both mute and deaf.
31	* DeviousDaggers: Considering that he's actually ''named'' [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Dagger"]], it's not surprising that (a) a dagger is indeed his weapon of choice, and (b) he works as an infiltrator, messenger, and spy for Zordock. He doesn't often fight or kill, but he does pull a knife when he needs to.
32	* DirtyCoward: Most of the villains are depicted this way:
33	** Dagger cowers when Zordock is angry at him, [[AgonyBeam and not]] [[YouHaveFailedMe without reason]]. He also immediately does as he's told when Pokum points the Emperor's sword at him and tells him to take him to Zordock.
34	** Magistrate Pitts is just as afraid of Zordock as Dagger is, and is also afraid to go into the dark woods without his guards to protect him.
35	** Zordock himself qualifies; it's a bit hard to see it for how scary Zordock is, but when the audience ''or'' in-universe characters analyze him, he fits: he's stated to be afraid of the Prince, and it's no lie: when the Prince so much as ''shows up'', he retreats, though not without spoken defiance. He doesn't even kill the Prince himself; he forces a minion to do it for him.
36	* TheDragon: Pitts was put in his position as magistrate by Zordock, and ultimately has to take Zordock's orders, no matter how frightening or [[EvenEvilHasStandards repulsive]] he finds them.
37	* DumbMuscle: Gorf is one of Magistrate Pitts' guards to Lumia Castle, and he's dimwitted and very easy to trick.
38	* EnchantedForest: The area under Zordock's influence is called the Dark Wood, and is pretty sinister-looking, and is [[InformedAttribute said to be]] full of dangerous beasts and next to impossible to escape alone.
39	* EveryManHasHisPrice: Pitts makes this assumption when he tries to purchase Keena's watering can. Keena doesn't trust him and doesn't accept his offer, even when he offers 50 silver coins!
40	* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Pitts found out firsthand how dangerous the [[DrugsAreBad Wonder Root]] was, he ordered every wonder root removed from his territory. Though it's ambiguous whether this was concern for his citizens' safety or a personal dislike for anything that [[ItsAllAboutMe had ever threatened him]].
41	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Pitts has a lot of trouble understanding the motivations of the protagonists.
42	* EvilCounterpart: There's a brave, loyal, helpful eagle who works for the Prince named Reagle, who also acts as a foil to the cowardly shapeshifting vulture Dagger, who works as a spy and messenger for Zordock. [[spoiler: The contrast becomes stronger when it's revealed that Reagle can shapeshift into a humanoid form as well.]]
43	* FantasticDrug: There was an episode meant to teach against the dangers of drugs where a few of the characters were trying something called a "wonder root". Its effects apparently entailed some kind of high, hearing things, and eventually ''blindness''.
44	* FauxAffablyEvil: Zordock is almost always an angry CardCarryingVillain, but once in a while he'll adopt this attitude temporarily to flatter a minion or attempt to trick a hero. It never takes long for him to revert to his usual self, though.
45	* FedToTheBeast: Pitts' favorite means of execution is feeding prisoners to Gulp, a beast who lives under his castle. [[spoiler: Gulp is actually a vegetarian with human-level intelligence, but Pitts doesn't know this.]]
46	* FellAsleepStandingUp: Magistrate Pitts has an aptly-named guard: Napps. He regularly falls asleep at his post while standing up; unsurprisingly, the protagonists end up taking advantage of this.
47	* FireAndBrimstoneHell: Zordock's lair is a cave with a lot of ([[RogerRabbitEffect cartoon]]) fire in the background, clearly intended to evoke this.
48	* ForcedTransformation: This is one of Zordock's abilities. [[spoiler: Gulp is actually Magistrate Kendrick, Pitts' predecessor, who was loyal to the Emperor and refused to go along with Zordock's plans. Zordock turned him into the beast that everyone now calls "Gulp" to punish him, but he's still got human-level intelligence, is capable of speech, and actively helps the protagonists whenever he can.]]
49	* GeniusDitz: Gorf is DumbMuscle and generally bumbling, but has surprising artistic talent and is an excellent dancer. He also figures out before Pitts does that it takes a pure heart to grow a trilly.
50	* TheGhost: The Emperor is mentioned often, but is never on screen.
51	* GodEmperor: This universe's God-analog is called "The Emperor", and considering the powers [[{{UsefulNotes/Jesus}} His Son]] has, it's pretty clear that The Emperor would also qualify as a god!
52	* GodsHandsAreTied: Zordock thought that stealing the Princess's ring would prevent the Emperor or the Prince from directly intervening. It's implied that he might've been incorrect about this; while the Prince sent some of his followers to rescue the Princess and recover the ring instead of going himself, the Emperor's Book and holy weapons still affected Zordock, even while he was wearing the ring. Plus, working through his followers tended to be the Prince's modus operandi, even before Zordock stole the ring.
53	* GodWasMyCopilot: At one point, Pokum, simply believing the Prince's promise to be with them when there's trouble, bravely stood up to Zordock and demanded in The Emperor's name that he leave Vibes alone. He did this completely unarmed, while Zordock was weilding very powerful and dangerous magic. Pokum had no idea the Prince was standing right behind him as he was saying this until after Zordock left and the other characters told him.
54	* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Played with: Pitts' guards aren't actually bad at fighting or weak, and when they're on alert, they present a genuine threat to the protagonists. That said, one of them is very dimwitted, and the other regularly falls asleep at his post.
55	* GuileHero: Minstrel Vibes is ''very'' good at making up lies on the fly and getting [[TheQuisling Magistrate]] [[TheDragon Pitts]] and his guards to believe what he wants them to believe. Justified in that he knows Pitts and the guards well, having worked for or with them in the castle for some time, so he knows how to use [[NeverMyFault their]] [[DumbMuscle flaws]] [[SleepyHead and]] [[SurroundedByIdiots expectations]] to his advantage, and has gotten the heroes out of a jam more than once with his ability to trick them.
56	* HealingHands: The Prince has this ability as part of his status this universe's Jesus-analog.
57	* HeroicSacrifice: The Prince allows himself to be murdered as part of The Emperor's plan to save Lumia.
58	* HiddenDepths:
59	** Gorf has more artistic ability than his status as a DumbMuscle guard lets on; lampshaded when Napps compliments him on his ability when he ''perfectly'' replicates Keena's painted watering can.
60	** Pitts himself has several hints that he's a redeemable character; after realizing you need a pure heart to get trilly flowers to grow, the episode ends when trilly that he's holding begins to bloom.
61	* InTheHood:
62	** Zordock is never seen without his horned hood. Probably because he's the only character played by a human actor instead of a puppet or a [[RogerRabbitEffect cartoon]].
63	** There's also an order of monks called [[UnfortunateName Mosquitobites]] who take vows of silence, work in Lumia castle's library, and wear brown robes with the hoods up. Naturally, at one point, one of our heroes disguises himself as one to sneak into the castle.
64	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: It's implied Pitts is capable of becoming this in an episode where purity of heart was the core focus; the very last shot of the episode shows Pitts holding a flower that can only bloom in the presence of a pure heart, and it ceases to wilt as the other characters look on in awe.
65	* KickTheDog: Zordock establishes his villainy early on by using an AgonyBeam on his minion Dagger, just for ''annoying'' him.
66	* LeaveNoWitnesses: The moment Zordock realizes the kids saw him arranging the murder of the Prince, he orders his minions to kill the kids, too.
67	* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Pokum at one point prays to the Emperor for a sword and shield, receives them, and the shield is effective at blocking Zordock's magic.
68	* MadeASlave: Zordock's said his long-term goal is to make all the citizens of Lumia his slaves. He seems to change his plans for the main characters specifically between making them his slaves or killing them; probably either one would make him happy. Dagger has been stated to be Zordock's slave as well.
69	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: When Pitts orders Napps and Gorf to kill Reagle, he tells them to do this word-for-word. They all know Reagle is the [[{{God}} Emperor's]] bird, so they know they won't get away with it if they don't.
70	* MasterOfDisguise: Dagger has shades of this; he can put on disguises and not get recognized by the heroes for quite some time, and can disguise his voice pretty effectively if necessary, as well. The audience never has difficulty figuring out who he is, though.
71	* MessianicArchetype: The Jesus-analog of this universe is named "The Prince", but interestingly, it's not him alone that functions as the lynchpin of [[{{God}} The Emperor's]] plan to save the land: it's actually the love between The Prince and his wife-to-be that is going to save the land.
72	* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Depending on the episode, [[VileVillainLaughableLackey Napps and Gorf]] might qualify: in some episodes they have no problem feeding [[WouldHurtAChild children]] to [[FedToTheBeast Gulp]]. In other episodes, they get childishly weepy when told to go out and kill an eagle. Possibly justified by the fact that they know the eagle in question works for The Emperor, but have no such knowledge about the kids.
73	* MorphicResonance: Dagger has two forms: a flying [[RogerRabbitEffect cartoon]] vulture form, and a live-action puppet humanoid form. In his humanoid form, his nose is long and hooked, like a vulture's beak. He also has a small helmet in both forms.
74	* NeverMyFault: Magistrate Pitts has this attitude. One minute he's praising his guards and insisting nothing can get past them (which [[FellAsleepStandingUp isn't]] [[DumbMuscle true]] at all, by the way), and the next he's blaming them for a security breach when he realizes Zordock is about to pull a YouHaveFailedMe on him!
75	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished:
76	** Defied when the Prince shows up to stop Zordock from punishing Vibes for refusing to work for Zordock.
77	** [[spoiler: Played with for Magistrate Kendrick: he also refused to work for Zordock and was turned into a beast for his trouble, but he never stopped believing in the Prince or the Emperor despite this, and was able to make good use his beastly form.]]
78	* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Pokum and Keena manage to evade Dagger, Pitts, Napps, and Gorf in the Dark Wood after witnessing them killing the Prince. Despite the fact that Zordock ordered them to LeaveNoWitnesses, they realize that the Dark Wood is so dangerous that those two kids aren't likely to make it out alive, so they give up the chase.
79	* OffingTheAnnoyance: Downplayed, in that Zordock will use his AgonyBeam magic on minions when they annoy him or when they [[YouHaveFailedMe fail him]], but he won't kill them: he most definitely does ''not'' have reserves at his disposal, and does rely on his minions to get things done.
80	* OffscreenCrash: When Dagger crashes while landing in his vulture-form, he typically does so offscreen. It's easy on the (low) budget of a ReligiousEdutainment program to do this with reused [[RogerRabbitEffect cartoon footage]], and it adds both comic relief and characterization.
81	* OnlyThePureOfHeart: It requires a pure heart to make a special, magical flower called a trilly grow. When Pitts walks past trillies, they tend to wilt.
82	* ThePowerOfLove: The Emperor's long-term plan to save the land of Lumia is to harness the power of his son and his soon-to-be daughter-in-law's love.
83	* TheQuisling: Magistrate Pitts is helping to bring Lumia under Zordock's control, and owes his position as Magistrate to Zordock in the first place.
84	* RainRainGoAway: Lolly's attitude toward a rainy day amounts to this. The characters pass the time by telling the story of when the Prince was murdered, and how He came back to life again.
85	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: At the start of one episode, the Prince walks right into Zordock's [[FireAndBrimstoneHell cave headquarters]] like he owns the place and tells Zordock to his face that he's no match for even ''one'' believing luman! Zordock is clearly terrified of him, but defiant nevertheless.
86	* RogerRabbitEffect: Most of the special effects (e.g. fire, rain, and magic) were done using hand-drawn animations that interacted with live-action puppets and objects, and when Dagger shapeshifted into his vulture-form, he went from a live-action puppet to a cartoon bird.
87	* SaveThePrincess: For most of the series, the Princess is kept in Lumia Castle, technically under the guard of Pitts (who is one of Zordock's minions), but she's still considered to be safe there. However, Zordock manages to steal the Princess's ring, kidnap her, and take her to the Dark Wood. Pokum, Gigag, Vibes, and [[spoiler: Magistrate Kendrick in his Gulp-form]] go to rescue her.
88	* {{Sleepyhead}}: Magistrate Pitts' guard Napps lives up to his name: usually, if he's at his post guarding Lumia Castle and no action is happening near him that he's involved in, he's sleeping standing up! He often wakes up if someone comes near him, though.
89	* SmoothTalkingTalentAgent: In one episode, Vibes agreed to play his instrument for The Prince as part of The Prince's plan. Trying to get him to stop, Dagger put on a PaperThinDisguise as one of these kinds of agents to try to talk Vibes into playing for him, telling him that he could be playing for royalty. Vibes told him he already ''did'' play for royalty; whether Vibes saw through the disguise or simply realized Dagger had nothing to offer him wasn't entirely clear.
90	* SorcerousOverlord: As this series' Satan-analog, Zordock qualifies. He has magical abilities including ForcedTransformation, an AgonyBeam, creating a variety of objects and substances with magical effects, and corrupting the forest into a dangerous Dark Wood, and is the series' BigBad; his stated goal is to make Lumans his slaves.
91	* SuperStrength: In spite of taking an arrow to the back, it's revealed that Reagle has this. He was able to pick up a large piece of tree trunk that was pinning Garbo down, while working alone and with only one hand, when several normal Lumans working together couldn't budge it.
92	* SurroundedByIdiots: Magistrate Pitts ''thinks'' his guards are dumb failures, [[DumbMuscle and not entirely]] [[FellAsleepStandingUp without reason]]. That said, he overestimates his own intelligence and underestimates that of his guards, often blaming them for his own shortcomings.
93	* ThunderEqualsDownpour: As soon as the Prince is killed in the dark wood, lightning flashes, and it begins pouring down rain, despite the fact that there was no previous indication that a storm was coming at all.
94	* TokenGoodTeammate: Vibes is a minstrel, a musician who works for Pitts, but who also loves the Emperor and sometimes (often reluctantly) puts himself in danger to help the heroes.
95	* TookALevelInBadass: Just after seeing the Prince murdered in the chronologically earliest on-screen events, Pokum was running away from Zordock screaming. By the end of the series, he's armed with a sword and shield from the Emperor, and successfully goes toe-to-toe with Zordock and ''wins'', albeit not without help.
96	* UndergroundRailroad: It's heavily implied that The Prince has one of these set up for lumans who escape Pitts' custody. [[spoiler: Pitts' favorite form of execution is to have his prisoners FedToTheBeast, but the "beast" is actually a vegetarian with human-level intelligence, ''and'' he's one of the good guys, to boot, so obviously, he doesn't eat the victims, and just after a prisoner gets dumped into the pit, a friend of his lets them go and directs them to another luman. This route of escape keeps the victims alive, and it keeps Pitts from catching on to any of this.]]
97	* UndyingLoyalty: Numerous characters have this toward the Prince and the Emperor, and the more loyalty they have, the better they are, by the in-universe morality. For that matter, the royal family is also true to the land of Lumia, though it's sometimes hard for the citizens to see it.
98	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: When the main characters need to find a way to rescue the princess, they huddle up and start coming up with a plan, their talk unintelligible to the audience except for Pokum declaring, "That's a great idea!" [[spoiler: They are successful in rescuing the princess, but how much of it is according to plan and how much of it is [[XanatosSpeedChess successfully reacting to the enemy's moves]] isn't altogether clear.]]
99	* VileVillainLaughableLackey: It seems like each villain who is under the last villain is one of these in comparison to his superior:
100	** Magistrate Pitts has two dimwitted DumbMuscle guards named Gorf and Napps, and compared to them, Pitts is greedy, intentional, and cruel.
101	** Pitts himself answers to a demonic warlock named Zordock, and compared to him, Pitts is cowardly, weak, stupid, and clumsy.
102	** Dagger's squeaky voice, clumsiness, cowardice, and the fact that he never shuts up (even when [[AgonyBeam he really should]]) make him laughable next to Zordock, as well.
103	* VillainousDemotivator: Zordock uses a magical AgonyBeam on minions who [[YouHaveFailedMe fail, or even annoy]] him. His underlings are thusly ''terrified'' of disappointing him.
104	* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Dagger demonstrates the ability to change into the form of a vulture, allowing him to travel distances quickly, helping him in his job as a spy and messenger for Zordock. [[CaptainCrash He's not mastered landing, though.]]
105	* WholePlotReference: One episode is a reference to the ''Literature/BookOfJob'', with Pokum getting a skin rash and being taken away from his home as a result. It even has [[MessianicArchetype The Prince]] and [[{{Satan}} Zordock]] arguing at the start of the episode about whether Pokum would still believe in The Prince if everything were taken away from him!
106	* TheWisePrince: The Prince in this series acts as a mentor-figure, has powerful magic, and is divinely wise.
107	* WouldHurtAChild: Gorf has no moral qualms with feeding children to Gulp, and is indeed eager to please his boss by dropping Keena and Pokum into Gulp's pit. Napps and Pitts have no problem threatening them either, for that matter.
108	* TheXOfY: A MacGuffin that is implied to have some magical effects is The Ring of Promise, essentially the engagement ring that the Prince gave to the Princess.
109	* YouHaveFailedMe: Zordock downplays this trope in that he uses an AgonyBeam on minions who've failed him rather than killing them outright, as he does ''not'' [[WeHaveReserves have many minions to work with]]. At the same time, he exaggerates it by using his AgonyBeam on minions who ''annoy'' him, whether the annoyance is due to failure or not.

Context Series / KingdomAdventure